Investigators now say Bill & Lorraine Currier were kidnapped last year

For the first time, federal, state and local law enforcement officials said Friday that Bill and Lorraine Currier of Essex, Vt. were forcibly abducted from their home in June 2011, and murdered shortly thereafter. "Our hearts go out to the families," Essex Police Chief Brad LaRose said.

The quiet couple's disappearance had baffled detectives for 13 months, but they said new information has them convinced the killings were completely random. "There was nothing the Curriers did in their personal lives that contributed to their deaths," said T.J. Donovan, the State's Attorney for Chittenden County.

The U.S. Attorney for Vt., Tris Coffin, said investigators have a suspect in the case. That individual is already locked up in an out-of-state jail on unrelated charges, Coffin said, but he would not identify the alleged killer, pinpoint a motive, or answer seemingly any questions about details of the case. Coffin said the matter is now in the federal government’s jurisdiction, but noted that state and local agencies are providing assistance.

A prime reason for the stingy release of information may be that the suspect has not yet been charged in the Curriers' deaths. Also, the most critical pieces of potential evidence, their bodies, have never been found. This, despite what investigators call the largest missing persons search in Vermont's history, consisting of 11 weeks spent in a sprawling Coventry, Vt. landfill probing 10,000 tons of trash. "The success of these searches is very limited, to around 10 percent," said Danny Rachek of the FBI office in Vt.

Rachek noted that the landfill search consisted of a grand total of 178 FBI agents from 38 field offices. The price tag for the search reached "in the seven figures," Rachek estimated, with federal investigators covering many of the costs, he said. Vt. State Police and Essex Police personnel took part, as well, and would have been paid by their typical funding sources, Rachek explained.

As they have before, police and prosecutors again Friday suggested their case could be put at risk of falling apart if they said too much publicly, including releasing info on the suspect. "I ask that please-- be patient with what we're trying to do," LaRose said, describing the limited information he and his colleagues released. "We're doing the right thing. We're striving for justice in its entirety."

The Curriers' family released a written statement saying in part, "We haven't yet made any plans for a public memorial service, but ask that all of you respond to this random act of violence with daily random acts of kindness in their names." The statement continued to say, "And remember Bill and Lorraine as the loving, generous, hardworking people they were. The world can only be a better place if all of us work together to make it so."

Coffin offered no possible timeline for an arraignment for the suspect.